


Come In

by liketolaugh



Series: Conflict of Interest [2]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Rain, down time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 10:29:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6048190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liketolaugh/pseuds/liketolaugh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a battle, Link looks after Allen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come In

Allen winced as Link, seated behind him, rubbed vigorously at his head with a towel.

Link faltered at the tensing of Allen’s shoulders. “Did that hurt?” he questioned, brow furrowed.

“Ah…” Allen grimaced. “A little. I think I hit my head.”

Both of them were dripping wet, just in from the rain after their mission’s end. They wouldn’t be able to return to Headquarters until the next morning, so they were staying at an inn.

The mission had taken more than twice as long as anticipated, and by the end, Allen was nearly stumbling with exhaustion. Link, used to working for days, sometimes, without rest, wasn’t quite as bad off, but he was tired, too.

And then, of course, it had started to rain.

Link let out a small, displeased hum and set the towel aside; when Allen glanced at it, there was a red spot, and a corresponding sharp ache on the side of his head. “Sorry,” Allen murmured, dismayed.

“You have no reason to be sorry,” Link muttered, and Allen heard him get up and start to rummage around his bag for something. He twisted just in time to see Link pull out a roll of bandages, brown eyes focused and intent as they returned to him. “You are an exorcist; your job is to fight. Of course you’ll get hurt.”

Allen smiled wryly. “You have a point there,” he admitted. “Still, it’s no big deal.”

“Every injury is ‘a big deal’,” Link said sternly, taking a seat beside him this time instead. With gentle fingers, Link turned his head so he was facing his front, and then reached up to start wrapping the bandages carefully around Allen’s head. “You could reopen it and bleed out, or it could become infected, or it could disorient you in the event of an attack, or-”

That was as far as he got, because then Allen had to laugh, a warm sort of fondness in his chest. “You worry too much, Link.”

“I’ll stop worrying when you start caring about your own safety,” Link muttered crankily, and Allen laughed again.

Despite the inconvenience of the situation, Allen was content. With a hum of his own, he leaned slightly into Link’s gentle touch, ignoring the sting of his wound. Like this, even with the chill of his damp skin in the open air, he could almost fall asleep…

“Walker.”

Allen opened his eyes and found Link frowning at him. “Link?”

“Don’t fall asleep until I’ve assessed your head wound,” Link ordered. “Does it hurt anywhere else?”

“No, nowhere,” Allen assured him, sitting up a little. Actually, his shoulder hurt from the same impact that had knocked him on the head, but that didn’t really matter. He’d taken up enough of Link’s attention already, and Link had done enough.

“Walker…” Link released a small, exasperated growl. Allen flushed.

“My shoulder,” he admitted, reached up to scratch the back of his head, only to encounter bandages. “But you don’t need to worry about it, really, it’s fine. You should go to sleep.” Link got short-tempered when he was tired, although he wasn’t sure the man realized it.

_ “You  _ need to sleep,” Link argued, and then added, “Take your shirt off so I can look at your shoulder.”

Allen winced again as he lifted his shirt over his head, and maybe it was his imagination, but he thought he felt Link’s fingers skim over the thick scar from Crown Clown before the man refocused on his shoulder, which was scraped and bruised.

“I’ll clean it,” Link said decisively, and stood up again, leaving Allen behind, staring after him.

With Link no longer looking at him, Allen allowed his expression to soften into something both pensive and wistful. It was nice, he thought, to have Link take care of him like this, even though he didn’t need to.

He wondered if Link knew what he was feeling yet.

It didn’t matter, he decided; if Link hadn’t said anything, then Allen wouldn’t, either. He didn’t want to lose this. He would, someday, but he didn’t want to.

It was selfish, but Allen wanted to keep Link for himself, for as long as it took the man to realize how broken Allen was, how much Allen didn’t deserve him.

Link, who had apparently taken a moment to wring out his hair and release it from its confining braid, returned with a bowl of water and a washcloth and sat down beside Allen again. Allen didn’t move as Link began to dab at the rough, dirty scrapes with careful, almost tender movements that barely stung at all. His warm breath washed over Allen’s arm and back, and his bare left arm rested on his knee in plain view.

Link never even glanced at it.

Without meaning to, Allen yawned, stifling it hastily. Link looked up sharply nonetheless, and Allen smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry,” Allen apologized. “I guess I was more tired than I thought.”

Link grunted and straightened up, apparently satisfied. The scrape got an adhesive bandage smoothed over it, and then Link turned his attention on Allen’s eyes again, strangely intent.

“Do you remember what happened?” he asked. Allen nodded.

“I didn’t see the akuma coming and got thrown into a wall. It only took a minute to get back up.”

“Follow my finger,” Link ordered, and after moving his finger around in front of Allen’s face, the boy tracking it obediently, he sighed and nodded. “You’re probably fine. Get some rest, Walker, we’re getting up early tomorrow.”

Allen stifled another yawn and nodded, getting up to change and forgetting his shirt on the floor, which made Link sigh, exasperated, before picking it up and tossing it across the back of the chair to dry.

When that was done, Allen fairly collapsed into bed, letting the exhaustion of the day wash over him and ignoring the dampness of his skin. He saw Link move to stand by the window, arms crossed and fairly glaring out it, and smiled tiredly.

“C’mon, Link, you sleep, too,” Allen told him, half-asleep already. “My eye will wake me up if an akuma comes. Don’t worry.”

“I always worry,” Link muttered, but he came over anyway. Allen closed his eyes, but didn’t let himself fall asleep quite yet, waiting for the sound of Link getting into bed.

Instead, he felt the covers he’d ignored being pulled over him, and, after a very long moment indeed, the merest brush of a kiss on his forehead, there and gone in an instant.

Allen smiled in his ‘sleep’, and when he finally heard the sound of Link climbing into bed, he let the darkness take him as well.


End file.
